Jumping inside

Which of these two jumps are you more likely to read? Why?

I AM NO FAN of jumps. Anyone who has been to my workshops and/or followed my blog knows that.

The main reason why I don’t like jumps is that readers tell us time and again that they don’t like jumps. Some won’t even start a story that jumps.

If I owned your newspaper (don’t worry, no chance of that ever happening!), your last issue would be the last time you jumped a story. But…I’d have to show you how to direct your writers, write tighter and segment your stories. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would get done.

But I don’t own your newspaper (lucky you!) and I accept the reality that most newspapers will jump at least a couple of stories from page 1 and/or the sports front.

So, here are some suggestions to help you make jumps work better for readers:

WRITE A JUMP HEAD that makes sense. Just a word, like “Police” or “City” or “Chase” doesn’t do the job. One-word jump heads assume that readers always read from front to back. Not true. Many will actually start at the opinion page or the sports front and then go forward. So a jump keyword with a “follow” headline (see illustration with this column) gives readers something that makes a bit more sense…and makes the jump more compelling to read.

TAKE ALL JUMPS to the same page. Readers can become frustrated when you take them to page 4 with one jump, page 7 with another and page 9 with still another. Designate one page as the jumps page and make sure it has enough space to handle all jumps—with visuals.

INCLUDE A STRONG VISUAL. Readers are more likely to begin reading a jump page that has some photos or graphics on it. A sea of gray will cause many to leave the page without reading.

MAKE IT WORTH going to the jump. I believe nothing is more frustrating to a reader than going to a jump that’s only seven or eight lines long. Readers will ask: “What? I came here for this? Why bother?” My suggestion: Use Ed’s “Rule of Eight.” Here’s how it works: Make sure you run at least four inches of text on the front. That should be enough to get readers into the story. Then, run at least four inches of jump. That’s enough to satisfy readers who make the trip to the jump page. So, four inches on the front and four inches on the jump. But…don’t jump an eight inch story!

DON’T JUMP on a paragraph. Instead, always try to jump in the middle of a sentence. Readers are more likely to follow an incomplete sentence to the inside page.

CHECK THE JUMP LINE. It’s confusing and frustrating for a reader to see a jump line that says “See CITY, Page 8” and discover that the jump head says “COUNCIL.” Make sure they agree.

CHECK THE JUMP. It happens now and then: You’ve got a jump line taking readers to the inside, but then you trimmed the story into page 1…and forgot to remove the jump line. There’s no jump, despite your line that says “See CITY, Page 8.” And there are times when you get a more important story for the front page, deciding to move the original story inside. But in the rush of deadline, you forget to move that original piece. So, you have a jump to story that has no beginning. Stuff happens. Check and double-check.

Readers would prefer we don’t jump our stories. Ever. But if we’re gonna do it, let’s work to do it right.

Design…by design

You’ve heard it here before: Place the visual first.

THE WAY I SEE IT, the word “design” is synonymous with the word “plan.” If you have no plan, you have no design.

And the word “plan” implies that you’ve given the look of your front page some forethought.

That’s not quite true at some newspapers, is it?

Too many editors/designers “wing it.” Oh, they may have a vague idea of what they want to put on the front, but that idea goes out the window as soon as they get a story that’s too long. Or…they don’t get that photo they expected.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, during World War II, said: “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

He was right. We need to have a plan for the page, but we also need to be flexible. If that story is too long, what do you do: Do you cut it, jump it or run it longer? If you were planning on a vertical picture but get one that’s much better—and horizontal—which do you run?

Flexibility is important, of course, but it just doesn’t work if you don’t have a plan to flex from.

Some points to consider:

HOW MUCH: How many story/photo packages am I going to put on the page? Do I have all the visuals I need? Are five/six stories too many? Are three/four stories too few?

BANNER: Is there one package that demands to be placed across the top of the page? What’s the visual to go with it? How long is it gonna be? Should I jump it?

LEAD VISUAL: Do I have one? Does it go with a story or does it stand alone? How big can I make it so it has impact? Where do I place it on the page?

OTHER VISUALS: Do I have a visual element with every package on the front? If not, how do I get that to happen? If I do have those elements, where do I place them so they don’t fight each other for attention?

JUMPS: How many is too many? Where do they go?

MODULES: No doglegs or odd-shaped packages. Each has to be designed into a rectangular module.

ADS: Do I have only banner ads? If, so they’re not a concern. But what if there has to be a two-column-by-four-inch ad in the bottom right corner of the front? How do I design with that and still keep the page modular?

HEADLINE SIZE: Am I using good headline hierarchy? Am I avoiding the use of a teeny headline at the bottom of the page? How big is too big on the lead headline?

TYPE WIDTH: Am I following the grid? Should I take one of the stories and give it an odd measure, to help it stand out a bit?

All of these need to be part of your thinking when you begin work on your front page. Remember: it’s a plan. And plans should be flexible. But if you want to do “design,” then you need to do “plan.”